By Julie DiCaro
It’s fair to say that I spend a fair amount of time in my little corner of the internet complaining about what Theo Epstein and the Chicago Cubs do wrong. Admittedly, this is much less wrong than they did under the previous regime (I mean, we haven’t started hoarding mediocre second basemen. . yet), but old habits die hard and, let’s be honest, Jim Hendry inflicted some pretty deep scars on my psyche.
But there’s a lot the Chicago Cubs have started doing right under Theo Epstein and company, and I’d like to take a moment to point out one of those things. As a woman, this is a thing I particularly appreciate.
As you know, a woman in the Dominican Republic has filed a criminal complaint against Cubs reliever Carlos Marmol for domestic battery. While this is far from the first time a professional athlete has been accused of violence against women, the Cubs’ response to the situation has been somewhat atypical. Rather than issue the usual knee-jerk blanket denial about standing behind “their guy” while demonizing the alleged victim (I’m looking at you, Steve Alford), the Cubs seem to have actually put some thought and effort into their decision to stand behind Carlos Marmol:
“We take any accusation of this nature seriously,” Epstein told the Tribune. “All the information we could gather supports Carlos’ contention that he is innocent of any wrongdoing. We expect this matter to be behind him soon.”
And how did the Cubs “gather” information? Did they rely on Carlos’ big brown puppy dog eyes and a statement from his agent? They did not. In fact, it looks like the Cubs did some investigating of their own:
The Cubs sent attorneys to the Dominican to look into the criminal complaint that 24-year-old Miledys Mejia Cepeda filed. No police charges apparently have been filed since the incident allegedly occurred last October, and a hearing on the matter was conducted Friday.
And this isn’t the first time the Cubs have waited for the evidence to shake out before they publicly voiced their support for a player. Here’s what Theo Epstein had to say about the sexual assault allegations against Starlin Castro last off-season:
“I don’t think it’s the right time or forum to talk about that,” Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein said Wednesday at a kickoff luncheon for the convention. “As facts develop and the story evolves, there will be an appropriate time to talk about that.”
Ideally, of course, Theo would have then gone on to stress the value of women as human beings rather than sexual objects in our society, and then finish his session by stumping for the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, but I’ll take what I can get. The fact that Theo didn’t immediately discount either one of these victims, but instead waited to see what evidence implicated or exonerated his player, feels like a huge step forward.
And while Theo appears to be a grown-ass man who values women as equals, he’s also a smart businessman. After all, it’s not a good idea to alienate 47% of the fan base (now I’m looking at you, Dave Sappelt).
Hey, don’t forget that we had to reschedule yesterday’s edition of Wrigley Talk Friday because of a mysterious personal near-tragedy that may or may not be revealed on the show tomorrow. We’ll be on the air tomorrow at 3 pm CT . You can listen here live, listen later, or download from iTunes.
It’s nice not to be embarrassed by the front office.
Thoughtful reasoned reaction? I like it.
I know this wasn’t the crux of the post, but I always bristle at negativity toward Jim Hendry. I get he shunned newer statistical analysis, but he was 5 outs away from being a god. He did exactly what a GM of a team that hasn’t won in a hundred years should do: built a team good enough to win the whole thing once. Except they got to the tourney three times. Not just once. That’s all a GM can do. I’m not the biggest Hendry fan, and I know at least part of the criticism is fallout from general Cubs angst, and I know I’m a Yankee fan and don’t know what I’m talking about, and I know like 5 people will read this today because it’s the weekend, and I hate run-on sentences, but still.
Whew…ok, done. Sorry about that.
And yes, the Theo-cracy is much better.
Everyone forgets the 3 times they made it to the postseason during Hendry’s tenure.
Yes. Everyone.
And of course, it certainly is his fault they lost 6 in a row the last 2 times.
But WTH!
Go Cubs!
9 in a row the last 3 times. We lost 3 in a row to end 2003.
But there were a lot of stupid things, too. I mean, the hoarding of second baseman . . what was the deal with that? And I know that Hendry was trying to “win now” back in the 2004-2006 seasons, but he completely mortgaged the next 8 years to do it.
Besides, Hendry was a much better GM in early 2000s than he was at the end. His refusal to embrace statistical analysis and his handing over the team to “his guy,” Mike Quade, was damn never unforgivable, IMHO.
“damn near.”
Go to the Daily Herald and get a look at the new Lincecum.
I could not help thinking if Samardzija did as such Julie would be sobbing with heartbreak.
AND the article by Karilee Jeantet who writes on the Phillies for Aeryssports is just as wonderful as it can get.
She’s fantastic.
Bleacherreport had an interesting comment which basically went:
“Cubs were extremely bad at offense last year. And they have basically the same lineup reporting this year.Not sure how the coaching staff is going to make these guys better. But they’re sure going to try.”
It certainly will be interesting and hopefully not boring.
That is incorrect, we have a full year of Rizzo who should get close to 30/100/.285+, we have Sori who will hit 25, Castro will provide nice numbers, Castillo can hit, and the platoon should provide another 20+
Our offense won’t be winning a pennant but its not near as bad as its made out to be.
You read Bleacher Report?